I learnt from that
 

New thread in the ongoing learning process that is aviation.
What have you learnt the most from and why? No names but as below examples and where it may have saved your skin.

1).Thorough flight planning in a light
twin to avoid severe icing in NZ. A windshield iced over and hearing ice chunks hitting the tail plane aint all its cracked up to be. Seeing the props on landing was impressive as well.
2). Being hurried into departures by ATC and
taking off on tip tanks
As well as ending up below MSA at night is Russian roulette.
3). At ppl level being on the lee side of the kaikoura ranges during a nor wester hurts your head on the ceiling of a PA28.
4). Radio failure and IMC on a vfr ppl fight
Is a life changing experience that often ends up in the crash comics.
5). How to restart an engine in flight if you run a tank dry is vital knowledge.
6). Checking the pitot tube is for a reason. Taking off from a one way strip in PNG with little or no airspeed reading and flying a
circuit by 'feel and instinct' sorts out the men from the boys. Bugs can make a clay nest over night. The kicker was the boss tried to blow them out a few mins after I tried to scare them out with the pitot heat.
7). Bush flying techniques and survival tips in PNG by the ex Chief Pilot of what was once the world's largest third level airline. You can't buy that experience or knowledge.
8). Closing the throttle on run up checks after a 100 hourly in PNG to ensure that it doesn't go very quiet on finals.
9). (Real) Aircraft operating costs by Torres.
10). New levels of sarcasm from Tinpis.
1 thru 8 all occurred in the first 1000 hours.
What have you learnt?

Finally understanding what the 'freezing level' in the forecasts actually means.
then rapidly descending to what little warm air was still above the ground and watching ice come off the prop and hit the windscreen.

Always remembering to apply magnetic variation when flight planning.
otherwise one can fly fat, dumb and happy for 2 hours, 10' off track, before realising that the map reading up till then has been an entertaining work of fiction.

The planned TAS and wind-corrections will never match reality.
therefore ensure that you have more than sufficient fuel to get to somewhere with fuel

1. Even or though doing a thorough preflight, before getting into the aircraft, have one final walk around to check things like Oil caps, Fuel caps and jackets /clothing left on the tailplane... The fuel cap one bit me when I was very inexperienced, landed after noticing the gauges were a showing less than what I thought should be there. Realised my mistake of leaving a cap off, now a final walk around is an SOP, even if I need a ladder to see the caps on the larger machines.

2. Nothing ever needs to be done in a hurry in an aeroplane. When being taught to shoot accurately I was told "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast", same applies.

3.. I don't know even a thousandth of what I should know, and I am learning everyday. The bag of luck still has some in it (I hope).

To err is human, to forgive is devine. Thou shalt not step out of line. Cheers mods for correcting my indiscretion.

Troppo, you started a thread which has the potential to offer a lot to our readers.

Just pointing it in the right direction ;)

A person that i have much respect for and is much wiser than me was doing a line check with me one time at night. Part of our company's after takeoff SOP checks were, Check fuel tank caps for fuel venting, as this was a Bonanza, and Baron with the bladder tanks.
The question was raised, without shining your torch out the window to the caps, what gauge indication will you see if you are in fact venting fuel? Of course i said straight away well your gauge will be decreasing. I was soon told that the gauge would actually show that your fuel quantity is increasing.
I've always remembered that, because one time it did actually happen to me, launched at night and didnt have the fuel caps sitting perfectly level in the recess, and after takeoff checks i came to the fuel vent check and there it was the gauge increasing. I flew a circuit, got out and there was the cap not sitting correctly.

I totally agree with the comment about going slowly because if i had have gone slowly it would not have happend if i did a proper walkaround.

300

If I have something that is not ops normal with the aircraft, Eg I have some work in progress or have a component missing , I always hang the key in a different place in the aircraft. I used to sit em on the dash, and if it was ops non normal, hang em on the fuel cock. Not such a good idea nowdays with all the security stuff, but it always worked in the days before we locked everything up. I managed to catch myself a few times because of the key.

Whenever there is something that I'll need to remember in a few minutes time, say, 2 -15 mins away, I turn my top screen down so that I can still see it but have to look a bit harder than normal. It is perfectly safe because I can still see it ,but it is annoying as hell and I don't forget to stop the fuel cross-feed or make that radio call etc etc because I can't wait to turn it back up. Before I had screens I used to rest my hand on the glare-shield, it's fairly comfortable but still acted as a reminder to do whatever it was I was trying to remember. Probably not for everyone but works for me:)

There is no such thing as an aeroplane with too much power.

I have learn't that an Aircraft is like a Women, It needs respect, attention, and TLC otherwise it will bite you on the backside when you least expect it. :{

And the difference between a women and an Aircraft is, you should tie an aircraft down when you leave it :E, It has stict weight & balance limits, and it never objects to a pre flight inspection ! :eek:

( In my best Swiss-French accent )

Do not be in a rush - you kill yourself moit.

Remove wheelchoks before taxiing! :{

Never, never....ever let someone else ruch you so you paint yourelf int a corner.

Typical situation.You finish a days flying and heading towards your car to go home, 5pm at present and last night is 5.45. The boss comes out and says, can you get a plane down to woop woop for maint and it has to be there today. Its a good half hr flight, your not IF or night rated or current or the aircraft isnt.

That gives you 10 mins to plan and get going(plan preflight Wx and notams etc), before you run foul of last light. Then you cant find the MR or keys quickly, then find its only got the min fuel, on top of that you havent flown that type in a while. If you go you will scrape in with nly a handful of mins before the 10 mins before EOD etc IF.....everything goes 100% right.. Perhaps you also havent been to the destination for some time.

You feel the pressure, want to get the job done, the boss is putting the heat on you to get going, perhaps the engineer has rung up 3 times to say where is the bloody aeroplane that you said would be there that morning. Your tired, maybe a bit flustered. Nothing is going right.

Take a step back, a deep breath and just say you cant do it. This has happened a few times to me, and on a few occasions after starting up and getting to the holding point, and cancelled. I just wasnt comfortable, I felt my ducks wern't in a row as they say. Now some would criticise, .....commercial pilots are supposedto be able to get going quickly, but theres a difference between being efficient and being rushed. Dont be affraid to say NO. if you have to, just walk 100m away from the aircraft, its amazing how your perspective on the situation just by putting sme distance between you and the aircraft.

After heavy maintenance ALWAYS take the engineer who signed it out on the test flight. You will be amazed at how helpful he can be during the pre flight.

After a walk around go and stand away from the a/c at a bit more of a distance, things can look different and is a good way of maybe spotting something that is not so clear close up!!

Aircraft laterally uneven- impending flat tyre or one tyre flatter than the other, fuel imbalance??

Antenna missing??

Bung left in or remove before flight tag??

These may seem like things that are obvious and could be spotted close up, well they can be, but if you look at the bigger picture, then on that 1% chance that any of the above are evident you have made sure of it...and also gives you a good chance of clearing your mind, composing yourself and being ready for the next situation instead of being in a dither

And on the subject of making sure, If you are ever unsure if you have or haven't done something, always double check it..

i.e. Sitting at holding point, unsure whether you put the fuel cap back on...instead of hoping to god you did, taxi back, shut down, get out and check, can be very annoying or embarrasing with pax, better that than having to deal with a serious fuel situatuon after take off...

The latest Flight Safety had some good close call stories. :ok:

An oldie but...the 3 most useless things in aviation.
1 The runway behind you.
2 The sky above you
3 The air in your tanks

Intimidation
 

I learnt on my second solo nav at PPL level not to be intimidated by the 'big boys'. When doing my pre-takeoff checks and noticing an A320 taxiing behind me I failed to allign my DG. Luckily soon after I intercepted my outbound track I did a 'sanity check' to make sure I was heading in the right direction. When things were not looking like they were supposed to be below a quick check of the panel revealed my DG to be out by ~30 degrees:eek:

If you're going to refuse a flight but still want to keep your job, make sure you have a good reason.

Hungover is not a good reason.

P.P.P.P.P

Don't ever do anything stupid quickly!

Don't even do something that you have not already planned before!

The regs are written in other pilots blood, don't think you are smarter than them!